"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Another refugee is Colin, the novelist protagonist of the title story. Upon his mother's death, this Londoner returns to his native Brisbane. In "half a dozen fictions," he has recalled the Brisbane of his youth, "the density of tropical vegetation, timber soft to the thumb, the drumming of rain on corrugated-iron roofs." Alas, what he finds instead, is a "new addiction to metal and glass." The home he has plundered for his writing is gone, except, of course, in his writing. He is further displaced by circumstance: he lands, improbably, in jail. Malouf writes again and again of the way adult life necessarily distances us from the dream stuff of childhood. His characters ping back and forth between past and present, unable to rest. Maybe this is a theme especially haunting in Australia, with its literal watery distance from everywhere else. At any rate, Malouf's Australians demand careful reading. When we pay attention, we start to feel unsettled too. --Claire Dederer
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # Abebooks78342
Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 0.9. Seller Inventory # Q-0375420533